Who gave this heretical practitioner permission to cook?

Chapter 146: Bones turned into paper, mountains piled into towers, the judges are still hungry, you bastard. (5K First Update)
[Am I seeing things? That cleaver looks like it can turn!]

[It can't even be called a kitchen knife anymore; it's practically a flexible sword shaped like a blade! Even when Xia Ming twisted his wrist just now, the blade curved like a crescent moon, and it didn't break!]

[I've only ever seen knives like this in anime; I've never used one in real life. Is it any good? I feel like I can't even control its direction when I hold it.]

[Based on their observations of the soft sword, seasoned martial arts enthusiasts speculate that this weapon is completely unusable for the average person; the point of force is constantly shifting, and without proper technique, it's a guaranteed explosion!]

"Yeah, look how steady his wrist is when he's cutting. If it were me, I'd probably have cleaved off the cutting board with the first cut."

This can't just be called knife skills anymore; this is art.

Xia Ming was completely oblivious to the comments from viewers in the live stream.

His attention was completely focused on the pork bones in front of him, and he completely ignored the slightly louder discussions among the judges beside him.

He was now simply manipulating the "Blood Hybrid" knife with the utmost precision, trying to peel the entire meniscus structure off the leg bone.

Even though his magical abilities grant him far greater control over the blade than ordinary people, this kind of operation is still not simple.

The reason is that the meniscus itself is thick and slippery, and the surface is covered with a thin layer of fascia. If the blade is only slightly off-center, it may directly pierce that fragile tissue.

And he knew in his heart that there were only two menisci on the half-pig.

One of them is the "medial meniscus," which is attached to the inside of the leg bone and has a gentler curve.

One of them is the "lateral meniscus," which has a narrower outer edge.

Moreover, Xia Ming needs more than just these two menisci; he also needs the two equally thin and delicate cartilage pieces attached to the bone beneath them.

Otherwise, with just two menisci, he wouldn't have gone to such great lengths.

As the "Blood Hybrid" knife gently rotated between the cartilage and bone, the blade seemed to have eyes, avoiding the fascia. Then, a faintly gleaming white translucent part gradually and perfectly separated from the bone below.

Finally, with a soft "thump," the small piece of the meniscus structure with cartilage landed steadily in the dish.

Xia Ming carefully examined it, making sure there were no extra bone fragments or fascia on the edges, before rinsing it in the clean water beside him.

He then turned his attention to the rounded part at the front of the "pig bone".

"Pork bones" are divided into large and small bones based on the forelimbs and hindlimbs.

The forelimbs are small, and the hindlimbs are large.

When making bone broth at home, we usually use the hind leg bones because they have more marrow.

When braising meat, it is preferable to choose the front bone, as the meat is firmer.

The biggest difference between the two is their size and the cartilage at the end of the club bone.

The cartilage of the large bone is more rounded, and after it is removed, it will look like a small, translucent white porcelain bowl.

The small bone has a very obvious symmetrical boundary, and after being removed, it looks more like a shumai that has been flattened on one side.

Removing these two pieces of cartilage is no less difficult than removing the meniscus, especially the part of the large bone, where the cartilage is tightly attached to the bone and the edges are embedded in the bone crevices. It can easily break if you are not careful, making it one of the most difficult parts to remove from the entire pig.

He took a deep breath, held it, and gently pressed the tip of the "Blood Mixed" knife against the edge of the large bone cartilage, carefully pushing the blade.

After the blade made a complete rotation between the bone crevices, he flicked his wrist lightly, and the smooth piece of cartilage fell into the porcelain plate with a "thud".

Viewers in the live stream and those in the players' rooms were instantly stunned!
They only felt a milky white, round membrane being separated from their leg bones, as thin as paper, looking remarkably like half a grape skin that had been hollowed out.

Of course, the two are quite different in size; the cartilage is much larger than the grape skin.

Seeing that part had been removed, Xia Ming relaxed his arm slightly and a smile appeared on his face.

"The most difficult part of the whole dish is completed at this moment, and the rest of the problems will be easy to solve."

After saying that, he directly used the "Blood Glutton" to smash the large bone he had taken off from one end.

With a "crack," the bone split open, revealing the plump marrow inside. After removing a little of the residue, he casually put it into the broth next to him.

Then, he used the knife in his hand to process the other parts of the pork cartilage, and finally, he sorted them and placed them on the cutting board.

Sun Xingyao, who was in the players' room, was stunned by what she saw.
He never expected that Xia Ming was serious!
Remembering his earlier words about "kowtowing," he frowned and thought to himself.

"Kowtowing is out of the question! If anyone's blind, I'll beat them up!"

Seeing that he was about to start acting crazy, the others who had been watching the spectacle looked away.

Whether he kowtows or not is none of anyone else's business, but if the scene just now happened to be broadcast live, he would be trending on social media this afternoon just for that one sentence.

Of course, it was definitely a "clown trending topic" that people were joking about.

If the live stream doesn't detect it, judging from Sun Xingyao's attitude, he certainly doesn't intend to admit it. Let's just treat it as a joke and let it go.

At this moment, everyone's attention, whether in the contestants' room or the judges' panel, was focused on Xia Ming.

Looking at the neatly sorted and slightly glistening cartilage on the cutting board, the contestants couldn't help but swallow hard, and then began to discuss it amongst themselves.

"If I didn't know I was competing, I would have thought I was in an anatomy class. The work is so meticulous!"

"They're not that kind. In anatomy class, this part is all about using bones as a reference. Who would be so kind as to remove all the sharp points?"

"I can tell this takes a lot of effort, but is it tasty?"

"I don't know, I've never made cartilage without any meat before."

"You remind me of a scene: ten pounds of lean meat, ten pounds of fatty meat, and finally ten pounds of tender cartilage, all of which need to be finely chopped into a topping. If Zhen Guanxi had Xia Ming's skills back then, he wouldn't have been beaten to death."

"Stop joking. Even if he could cut it, he'd need this many pigs to cut. Look at the cartilage from Xia Ming's half-pig. It wouldn't even weigh half a pound, let alone the precious cartilage."

"Wait, forget about Lu Zhishen, Xia Ming... he's stabbed again!"

Inside the arena
Xia Ming took the already shaped "rib cartilage (pork cartilage)" and began to use the "blood-mixed" knife to perform flat knife skills.

"Flat knife" is one of the most basic knife skills in Chinese cuisine.

The process is quite simple: place the ingredients steadily on the cutting board, keep the knife blade parallel to the ingredients, and then slice them into thin slices from one side.

However, beneath this basic technique, there are two advanced branches: one is the commonly used "rolling cut," and the other is the more difficult "continuous thin cut."

The "rolling knife" is commonly used for peeling fruits and vegetables. Simply find the right angle for the cylindrical fruit or vegetable, and gently push and roll it with the knife to peel off the skin perfectly. Like the "flat knife," it is a basic knife skill.

"Thin slices" or "spinning slices" are mainly used by rolling the ingredients while cutting them with a flat knife, based on the "flat knife method," to ensure that the ingredients can be cut into thin, translucent paper-like slices.

This technique, known as "Katsura Peeling" in the "Island of the Rising Sun," differs from the Chinese practice of using a single-edged knife. The "Katsura Peeling" method in the "Island of the Rising Sun" requires specially crafted knives and can only be used to process vegetables.

In my country, "Guanlian Bopi" is considered an "intermediate skill" and is often used as part of the "advanced shaping knife skills assessment" in the "Sunrise Island" assessment.

Furthermore, the two countries use them in different settings. In the "Island of the Rising Sun," the "Katsura Peel" is often used as a plating decoration for "Kaiseki cuisine" and "high-end Japanese cuisine," and is often arranged in the shape of a flower.

Huaxia's "Guanlian Bopi" has a wider range of uses. It can be used as a preparatory work for "extreme shredding" or as a preliminary operation for "hollow food carving".

Regardless of the method used, the ingredients must possess the characteristics of firm texture and fine fibers.

Only by meeting this requirement can the blade have sufficient hardness to support continuous cutting and prevent the slice edges from becoming rough due to excessively coarse fibers.

Clearly, cartilage does not meet these characteristics.
Seeing Xia Ming steadily process the "rib cartilage (pork cartilage)" in his hand into thin, translucent strips of cartilage, the seven judges on the stage fell silent.

They knew perfectly well that even if they got their hands on that piece of pork cartilage, they would most likely not be able to replicate that kind of knife skill.

After all, "tough connective tissue" and "fibrous tissue" in vegetables are not comparable at all. Unless there are zero mistakes, the former can never be processed into paper.

After a long pause, Wei Yan chuckled silently. "Heh, master-level knife skills? Even master-level knife skills don't involve this! If you ask me, this knife skill alone could easily qualify for a 'world record'!"

Sui Wubai nodded silently.

In all his years as a chef, he had never seen anything as outrageous as what he witnessed today. Removing cartilage was one thing, but this cartilage was as thin as paper; he bet even his master had ever seen anything like it.

Since I've never even seen the process of making the dish, there's no point in discussing the dish itself.
Yu Fangmei, who was standing to the side, pondered for a long time before finally looking up at Mao Xianzheng.

"Old Mao, you've read more ancient books than I have, but have you ever seen any similar recipes in them?"

After thinking it over and over, Mao Xianzheng slowly spoke.

"In the ancient Song Dynasty text *Shan Jia Qing Gong*, there is a dish called 'Bo Xia Gong,' which is essentially hot pot rabbit meat."

The description reads: "Thin slices, marinated in wine and soy sauce, and rinsed in a hot stove."

"That is, the rabbit meat needs to be sliced ​​into paper-thin slices and cooked in the soup, just like the wind turning the sunset."

The ancient text *Yunlintang Diet System Collection* records a dish called "Qingxia Juan Cuan," which is essentially sliced ​​shrimp.

The text describes how to prepare raw prawns by removing the head and shell, leaving the small tail intact. It then describes thinly slicing the prawns with a small knife, starting from the head and ending at the tail, ensuring the meat is connected to the tail without breaking it.

"Judging from this contestant named Xia Ming, his knife skills are already indistinguishable from those of a 'shrimp roll'."

"But all I can recall right now are records related to knife skills. I'm afraid I can't find anything related to pork cartilage either!"

Tan Zhifeng looked at Xia Ming below the stage and sighed inwardly.

"No wonder he refused without even thinking when I tried to recruit him. It turns out that he didn't actually show his true strength during 'One Meal to Fame'."

"What incredible talent!"

Yin Shengjiang quickly went through all the "culinary masters" still alive in China in his mind. He really couldn't figure out which master Xia Ming had apprenticed under.
"They've grown up to this size; they couldn't have just fallen from the sky."

He discovered that Xia Ming's skill in knife work had completely surpassed his imagination, and, well, he had also surpassed him along with him.

Although "knife skills" are not everything in a chef's cooking, just based on this skill of handling cartilage, as long as Xia Ming doesn't bring up a whole lump of meat, Zhu Wuneng will have no chance at all.

After all, it's easy to find a chef who can cut "pagoda meat," but a chef who can handle "cartilage" is extremely rare.

He could imagine that if Xia Ming's dish could be perfectly presented in the end, it would definitely have a place in the next version of the "Ultimate Knife Skills" online teaching material.

Thinking of this, Yin Shengjiang sighed.

"I remember the last time the 'Ultimate Knife Skills' textbook was expanded was over a decade ago, when Xia Yitian cut out the 'Myriad Intricate Web'."

"But at least the 'Ten Thousand Threads Web' has some traces to follow, but this 'Bone-to-Paper Transformation' is unheard of."

Just as everyone was marveling at Xia Ming's superb knife skills, Xia Ming had already processed all the "rib cartilage (pork cartilage)" into paper-thin slices.

After some repairs and making the paper's thickness completely uniform, Xia Ming picked up a thin sheet and quickly sliced ​​it into strips!
With a swift movement, he sliced ​​the thin slicing blade into strands of soft, flexible thread, yet the ends remained firmly locked in place.
It looks like a whole sheet of enoki mushrooms spread out evenly, with the heads swaying slightly but the tails still connected.

After cutting around the edge, Xia Ming rolled it up like a sheet of rice paper and then nailed a "cartilage nail" into the final sealed area.

After a series of actions, the "rib cartilage (pork cartilage)" in his hand resembled a small blooming "coral flower," translucent white, and swaying in the wind.

He then cut other cartilages in the same way and eventually wrapped them layer by layer around the "little coral flower".

As more and more fine threads appeared on the outside, viewers in the live stream finally realized that the thing had transformed into something they were quite familiar with.

[Doesn't the cartilage in Xia Ming's hand look more and more like a chrysanthemum?]

Yes, it looks exactly like the "chrysanthemum tofu" I had before. Don't tell me they're using pork cartilage to make this!

[It shouldn't be that difficult. You know, the reason "chrysanthemum tofu" can be cut into so many strips is entirely due to the properties of tofu itself. Trying to simulate that with cartilage is just too difficult!]

[It's hard to say. In my memory, the color of cartilage broth is exactly the same as tofu. If that's true, I can't even imagine how much this dish should cost.]

After Xia Ming finished making the chrysanthemum-shaped cartilage, he looked up at the time and realized that an hour and a half had passed. The second group of contestants had already come up to process the ingredients.

Xia Ming gently moved the chrysanthemum in his hand, and after ensuring its internal stability, he took the "large bone cartilage" that had been processed.

Then, bone marrow collected from the spine was squeezed inside, and finally, the bone marrow was used as an adhesive to bond the cartilage to the chrysanthemum base.

After gluing the two together, Xia Ming poured a basin of cold water and put it in. He found that it could achieve a similar effect to a roly-poly toy when submerged in cold water, and he wiped away his sweat.

"Now that the main ingredient is prepared, it's time to make the other parts."

As he spoke, he took the "pig ear cartilage," found the hardest part, cut it into a flower-like shape, took a small pot, put it in with the meniscus, and stewed it with the broth that had been prepared earlier.

After that, he took a large bowl of broth and filtered it several times to remove the floating oil and residue.

The final broth has a slightly yellow hue, is crystal clear, and exudes an irresistible aroma of meat.

Xia Ming placed it in a separate small pot, added bamboo fungus, and then cooked it together with the prepared "soft bone chrysanthemum cup". While cooking, Xia Ming kept adjusting the heat.

During the intermittent period, he cut all the remaining cartilage he had removed into fine "white hairs" that could be threaded through a needle.

After tidying up, I took another bowl of soup and put it into the pressure cooker along with the "white hairs," and added an appropriate amount of white vinegar.

After that, as the pressure cooker released steam, the complex part of Xia Ming's dish was finally completed.

At that moment, Zhu Wuneng, who was opposite Xia Ming, gathered the stir-fried preserved mustard greens together with his gloved hands.

He then sculpted the pork belly into two neatly shaped pyramids. After that, he took out the pork belly that had been pressed and shaped, and began to slice it from the left side.

Because the pork belly he used was much larger than the usual pagoda-shaped pork, it was much more difficult to cut.

He cut the pork belly with great care, afraid that something might go wrong with it.

In fact, he had just vaguely seen Xia Ming's movements and found that he was often struggling with his bones. Zhu Wuneng also felt a sense of unease.

He wasn't sure what Xia Ming was up to; apart from the aroma of pork soup, he couldn't smell anything else.

"Never mind, it's too late now. Even if he could carve flowers out of bones, with my 'Twin Peaks Pagoda' technique, he's doomed!"

After saying that, he took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and his slicing speed increased significantly.

While Zhu Wuneng was concentrating on slicing the pork belly, Xia Ming was enjoying his favorite part.
He picked up a piece of pork from the side, cut off the remaining piece of pork shoulder with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, then used the pork fat to coat the grill. After that, he began to process the meat while controlling the temperature of several pots of soup.

As the aroma gradually wafted up, the judges on the stage also looked over, drawn by the scent.

Upon seeing his roasted meat covered in spices, Wei Yan raised an eyebrow.

"This barbecue is a bit too spicy, it looks more like a street food. Doesn't it seem a bit out of place with this kind of food in a soup base?"

Sui Wubai and Tan Zhifeng knew a little about Xia Ming, and after a moment of silence, they remained silent.

Tan Zhifeng spoke quietly.
"Wei Yan, how do you know that's for you to eat?"

Wei Yan was taken aback.

"If he won't give me any, what else can he do?"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Xia Ming, who was watching the soup, take the roasted meat down, quickly slice it, then take the dipping sauce, pick up the meat and put it in his mouth.
Wei Yanren was completely stunned upon seeing this scene.

"Seriously? Is there no law anymore? The judges are still hungry, and you, a contestant, are eating in front of everyone???"

(End of this chapter)